Could Be This Easy
by iwouldgetaniguana
Summary: Coming back to the Castle-ship and delivering the news that he was part-Galra, Keith had been expecting Allura's icy stare and Hunk's anxious fidgeting. But Lance and Pidge sort of caught him off guard.


A/N: Title from Greg Laswell's "How the Day Sounds" again, because I was too lazy to think of something else and it still works.

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Coming back to the Castle-ship with Kolivan and Antok and delivering the news that he was part-Galra, Keith had been expecting Allura's icy stare and Hunk's anxious fidgeting. But Lance and Pidge sort of caught him off guard.

"Hold on, back up a second," Lance said, putting up his hands. "What was that about a fight to the death?"

"Wait. Does that mean Keith's from space?" Pidge asked, hand on her chin. "Or that Galra were on Earth? Did the Blade of Marmora try to get to the Blue Lion first?"

"You let him fight in an initiation to the _death_?" Lance exclaimed, looking at Shiro.

"Who originally piloted the Blue Lion?" Pidge continued, looking at Allura.

Which somehow did _not_ catch Lance's attention, because he was snapping at Keith: "I thought we agreed no more doing stupid shit on our own to prove a point!"

"He wasn't just proving a point, he was getting intel," Pidge snapped back. Then she paused. "Did you ...actually get any?" she asked.

Keith crossed his arms. "You mean _other_ than the fact that I'm part Galra?"

Pidge and Lance flinched, looked at each other, and shut up.

Keith said nothing more, letting Shiro try to explain things before Kolivan and Antok urged the group to move on to more pressing matters.

Later, as Keith was getting ready for his mission with Hunk, Coran ducked into his room. "Doing alright there, Keith?"

"I'll be ready to leave soon," Keith replied.

Coran frowned, put a hand on his chin. "Hmmmm, right. Well, before you go, would you mind running these schematics down to Number 5 for me?" He held up a micro-chip. "She'll need them for Operation Beta –Hazbeen!"

Keith stared at him.

"You know, the Beta-Traz jailbreak –"

"Right." Keith sighed. "Can't you just do it?"

"Oh no can do, Number 4, I've got to get back to helping the Blade of Marmora with the virus they designed." Coran puffed out his chest. "They need a mechanic's perspective on things, you know." He shoved the microchip into Keith's hand and patted his shoulder. "There's a good lad," he said, voice soft, and walked out.

Keith looked down at the micro-chip, clenching it in his fist.

He entered the Green Lion's hanger to find Pidge seated beside her Lion, typing away on the laptop perched on her knees while Lance looked over her shoulder, asking questions and pointing. Pidge lifted her head like she was going to snap at Lance, but stopped when she saw Keith.

"Oh," she said, overly bright, "hey!"

"If it isn't the man of the hour," Lance drawled, picking himself up and strolling over to Keith.

"What?" said Keith.

"Collecting scaultrite's supposed to be one of the most difficult tasks in the universe, think you can handle it?" Lance sneered at him...which...wasn't so unusual.

"I'll be fine," Keith answered, stilted. He walked over to Pidge and held out the micro-chip. "Coran said to get these schematics to you."

"Oh – thanks, Keith." Pidge reached out and took it from him, not fast, not slow, not careful that their fingers didn't brush, just...normally. And then plugged the chip into her computer.

"So seriously, how do you feel about your upcoming descent into the grossest place in the universe?" Lance said, slinking to his side again. "Nervous? Totally grossed out? No need to be ashamed, you can tell me."

"I'm fine," Keith snapped.

"Fine, he says," Lance scoffed. "Like anyone can just shrug off –"

"What is this about, Lance?" Keith growled.

Lance slumped. "Come on, man," he whined. He peeked at Keith out of the corner of his eye. "Okay, fine, I'll level with you, but don't let this inflate your giant ego – Hunk's pretty squeamish."

Keith blinked. "What?"

"Don't get me wrong, I have total faith in him," Lance continued, "total faith. But like," he waved his hand in a circular motion, "if you could just keep an extra eye on him, help him through it, you know, that would be..." he glanced at Keith again, "pretty good..."

"So you..." Keith swallowed. "You trust me with that?"

Pidge looked up. "Keith."

Lance frowned. "Well, yeah? You've always got _my_ back – _not_ that I need it! But, you know..."

Keith crossed his arms. "Well, Allura seems to think I could turn on you all at any second, so..."

Lance and Pidge shared another look.

Abruptly, Keith felt like he was back in the Principal's office at the Garrison.

"Keith," Pidge said. " _How_ would you even turn on us? You're the worst liar I've ever met. There is absolutely no way you could ever have ill-intentions towards us without us being able to hold an intervention for your identity crisis immediately."

"Uh," said Keith.

"Well, technically," Lance postulated, "he could be a really good actor that just makes us _think_ he's a bad liar, so your logic is flawed."

Pidge glared.

Keith turned to Lance. "So you _do_ think –"

"Of course not," Lance flapped a hand – then, smirking, placed that hand on his chest. "I really do believe, with all my heart, that you are a terrible actor."

"Uh," Keith said again.

"Keith," Pidge said. "I know this is hard for you to deal with, and I know Lance and I aren't exactly the most sensitive people around –"

"Hey!"

"– but you are literally the same person you've always been. You're not different just because our knowledge about you has been updated. You've still saved our asses a bunch of times, you're still helping us defeat Zarkon, and you still pilot like a crazy person."

"And you still have bad hair," added Lance.

"So..." Keith glanced between them – they were both looking at him like he was some kind of moron. Which was...better than fear or hate. By a long shot. "So we're cool?" he tried.

Lance snorted. "Keith, buddy, my man." He slung an arm around Keith's shoulders and poked him in the chest. " _You_ are never cool. But we," he gestured between them, and then vaguely at Pidge. "Are totally cool. Duh."

Keith let out a breath. "Oh."

"Yeah," Pidge agreed. "Now can you losers leave me alone while I try to program this for the Beta-Traz thing?"

"Aw, yeah, heist mission!" Lance punched the air, steering Keith out of the Green Lion's hangar. "It's gonna be so badass – like a spy film! It's a shame _you're_ stuck literally going through a digestive track instead, but hey, you did say it's not about the glory, right?" Lance preened.

"Why do I even bother talking to you," Keith muttered, walking along.

Lance ignored him. He was talking about...something that had happened when they were still at the Garrison? Or something. But his hand was still on Keith's back like he'd forgotten it was there.

" _You are literally the same person you've always been."_

Well. At least they believed it. That was something.

That was a lot.

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A/N: I don't know how this would have actually gone down, but I wanted to write it anyway. Thoughts?

Hmu on tumblr, iwouldgetaniguana. I don't use it very much yet but no time like the present, right?


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